The present invention relates to improved bakery products having a high dietary fiber content.
The nutritional benefits of fiber in the diet are well-known. The addition of dietary fiber to bakery products such as bread causes difficulties since fiber has a deleterious effect on bread quality. The addition of fiber dilutes the gluten, while fiber particles affect the film forming and stretching characteristics of the gluten film. Lower loaf volumes are the result. In order to overcome this problem, it is a common practice to add vital wheat gluten to compensate for the volume loss.
In bread containing shortening, small amounts of fiber do not seriously affect the specific volume. However, the specific volume is seriously affected as the amount of fiber is increased. Because fiber breads are normally sold to persons who are health conscious, it is undesirable to maintain a high fat content or a high calorie content in the bread. While the beneficial effect of a portion of the shortening can be offset by the use of a surfactant emulsifier such as sodium stearoyl 2-lactylate (such as that sold under the trademark EMPLEX.TM.), the degree of offset decreases as the amount of dietary fiber increases. While a reduced amount of shortening in combination with either the sodium stearoyl 2-lactylate or a mono and diglyceride can effectively offset the shortening at low fiber levels, the effectiveness of these combinations in maintaining specific volume decreases as the amount of fiber increases.
However, as the shortening is decreased so is the effect of lipid derived surfactants to offset the deleterious effect of the fiber. It is therefore desirable to prepare high dietary fiber-containing bakery products such as bread, which have an effectively high specific volume to maintain the loaf organoleptically acceptable, while being able to reduce the shortening level in the bread. It would also be desirable to achieve these ends while maintaining softness in the bread.